(45) And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and the hair of his head shall go loose, and he shall cover his upper lip, and shall cry: ‘Unclean, unclean.’(46)All the days wherein the plague is in him he shall be unclean; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his dwelling be.

And he shall cry, Unclean! Unclean! [That is], impurity cries out [to the passer-by] and tells him: Keep off! And R. Uzziel, the grandson of the elder Rav Uzziel, said the same, [that] impurity cries out [to the passer-by] and tells him: Keep off!

But, was this [text] intended for this lesson? It is required for what has been taught: And he shall cry, Unclean! Unclean! [This teaches that] one must make his distress known to many, that many pray for mercy on his behalf.

(2) This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest.(3)And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper;(4) then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.(5) And the priest shall command to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water.(6) As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar-wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.(7) And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let go the living bird into the open field.(8)And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean; and after that he may come into the camp, but shall dwell outside his tent seven days.(9) And it shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off; and he shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.(10) And on the eighth day he shall take two he-lambs without blemish, and one ewe-lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour for a meal-offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil.(11) And the priest that cleanseth him shall set the man that is to be cleansed, and those things, before the LORD, at the door of the tent of meeting.

Matters such as these are handed over to the Beit Din, who knows that one who converts is as a newborn child.

Etz Hayim Torah Commentary

Bathe his body in water: This was not simply to cleanse oneself. It symbolized rebith and recreation--just as an infant is born out of water, just as a convert emerges out of water to a new life and a new identity, just as the world was created out of water (Gen. 1:2). The experience of illness and recovery has made the leper a new person--that is, someone who now looks at life differently (Sefer HaChinuch).

The Torah: A Women's Commentary

Dr. Rachel Havrelock

By moving from a state of ritual impurity to one of ritual purity, the ever-changing human body serves as the index for the transformation of identity...As the body undergoes the permutations of ritual purity and impurity, the impure body is sometimes exiled--but not abandoned to its exile. The appearance of a priest outside the camp (14:3) signals that exile is ephemeral and that restoration will begin.,,,

Focus on the body emphasizes the changes undergone by the self in the process of becoming another self. Signs on the body gauge identity and mark transformation. When the sick are healed, their bodies bear the proof. Yet one's body is not only an indicator of change but also a vessel of memory...The body attests to change as well as to the indelibility of experience. Therefore descriptions of identity, predicated as they are on the language of body, convey the tension between the possibility of change and the integrity of forms.